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READ THIS BEFORE BUYING

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: January 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Shogun is an EXCELLENT game, BUT IS UNPLAYABLE ON MOST OF THE BRAND NEW SYSTEMS OUT TODAY. Due to terrible EA techinical support, and horrible compatibility issues, Shogun doesn't work on my BRAND NEW 900mhz computer. I know for a fact that most people with an Nvidia graphics card CANNOT play Shogun. Electronic Arts (manufacterer of shogun) neglects the problem and refuses to patch their game to work with Nvidia drivers. The game also does not work on Windows Millenium computers. PLEASE keep this in mind before buying ANY game from Electronic Arts. The company obviously neglects to give their customers honest tech support and neglects to make sure their games even work!

Shogun: Total War, An Excellent Combat Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 15
Date: June 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Shogun, Total War is exactly as the title says: total war. I've played the demo, and I immensely enjoyed the gameplay, graphics, sound fx, and, of course, the fighting. But (this is why I gave it four stars) it is missing the aspect of feudal Japanese lifestyle and empire building. All the game seems to have is fighting, no city building whatsoever. Althought this actually doesn't affect the game itself, it would be a better game if it had some city building. Then the entire concept of conquering Japan would be complete. Thus, although I will probably buy the game when it comes out, I will have enjoyed it more if it had a truly strategic empire building factor.

THIS IS THE BEST AVAILIABLE

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 21
Date: April 23, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is the best game I have ever played. I have never seen a better mixture of graphics and gameplay in my many years of gaming. The storyline and truth to history is so wll thoughtout you will think you are actually there. The physics of the game allow you to have several hundred units on the feild at any given time and it doesn't even tax your system. I would recomend this game to novice gamers or experianced RTS players. This game is the best I have ever seen. The interface is so simple to use that you will be kicking some butt as soon as you start playing. I could not and would not recomend anyother game higher than Shogun: Total War

Saw it, Bought it, Loved it !

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: June 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Shogun Total War - Well what do i think of the Game? Well I gave it Five stars so obviously I think it is great. This RTS game will be the best game available of its kind on the market for a while to come. If you are not the sort of person that gets thrills out of commanding vast Samurai Armies in what is essentially mass slaughter, then don't even think about purchasing this game. The game requires a great deal of thought, whether it be, do I attack or not? should I assasinate him or leave it for fear of being caught? Should I build a Sword Dojo or a Horse Dojo? What will benefit me in the future? These sorts of choices may sound a little stupid, but they are exactly what one will be thinking. The game provides four levels of difficulty, each substantially different from the other, however one will obviously not experience the true art of playing Shogun in a serious and involving way unless they play at the herdest of levels. Only then can one expect the levels of realism in battle and in the economic struggle to be truely realistic. The two levels of play (that being the overall turn based strategic map, and the real time battles) have been well amalgamated, without making the game too tricky, or for that matter too simple. The game on the overall strategic level is indeed very simple (When I say simple I mean simple to understand). Units are moved between provinces by a simple click and drag process. The quality of the fighting force you can put in the field will depend highly on the strength and quality of your economy. Upgrades and improvements are constantly available. Oh decisions, decisions! On the RTS side of things the game is perfect. Everything about the battle simulations will make you want to fight more and more of them.The exceptionaly presented environment with climate hazzards ranging from Fog to Snow one could not ask for anything more real. With thousands of accuratley presented Samurai, ranging from No-Dachi Samurai (Double handed swordsman) to Heavy Cavalry, from Warrior Monks to Musketeers one has a trully amazing choice of. The trade with the foreign barbarians (The Dutch and The Portugese) bringing guns and new technology, whether you except their help is up to you, however do not expect you people to approve of your Christianic ways. Well from reading this review I hope I can convince those strategists of you to purchase this game. Shogun Total War is certinately the best game of the year, and is certainatly the best RTS game ever. "Easy to Learn, Hard to Master"

Great presentation, great idea, good-to-fair gameplay

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: September 17, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Shogun: Total War both does and doesn't live up to my expectations as an avid fan of 16th Century Japanese history. It's obvious from the start that this game was more than just a product to the team at Creative Assembly, who designed it for Electronic Arts. The presentation is virtually flawless. From the music and sound effects to the cutscenes and menu screens, this game drips with atmosphere. And the "Way of the Daimyo" website included on the CD is an outstanding informational sidebar to the game itself that obviously took a lot of time to create and did absolutely nothing for sales. So it's clear that this game's release was pushed back for all the right reasons, something for which both developer and publisher are to be commended.

As far as actual gameplay, S:TW is as good as it can be, which is not to say perfect, but I can't realistically imagine it being better. If you've ever played "Nobunaga's Ambition" or "Shingen the Ruler" on the old 8-bit Nintendo system, you have played a scaled-down version of S:TW. Even if you haven't, if you've already read the other reviews on this page, I don't need to tell you the basics of the game, so I'll cut straight to the gist of its strong and weak points.

First, the strategy game is entertaining and addictive enough in its own right, but it has a tendency to settle into the standard "build lots of the best quality troops and move from chokepoint to chokepoint" fare long before you reach the middle of the strategic map. Without getting down and dirty in the tactical screen, all the Sun Tzu-based AI and fascinating tactical decisions about troop types, honor, weather, terrain, etc. happen behind the scenes, giving the whole strategic game the feel of "go for big numbers of troops and roll the dice."

The other problem with the strategic game is the diplomatic model. Treaties will only last more than a turn or so when you have the military strength to back them up, at which point you don't really need to use diplomacy. Granted, this is very realistic for the period in question, but it doesn't add much fun to the game (and, lest we forget, games should be fun, not just history lessons).

Once you drop down to the tactical screen, the game gets both more interesting and more frustrating. The really great battles are the really BIG ones, and S:TW lets you get it on in huge scale, with literally thousands of troops going at it. Unfortunately, these almost always disintegrate into unmanageable free-for-alls, where you become a sort of awed spectator, mouse limp in your hand as you watch your samurai ignore you commands and either charge or flee in a big ugly clump of all-too-similar-looking 2-D sprites. Even in the small battles, I had a hard time getting archers to join the fray in melee, even when their help would have overwhelmingly turned the tide of battle in my favor. Close Combat 2 had troop morale worked in, where panicking soldiers would disobey you, and it was only mildly annoying on occasion. The rampant disobedience of my samurai - I'm talking samurai here, not simple peasants with spears - led me to finally give up the tactical game in favor of the straight strategic approach, which has the aforementioned limitations.

If I sound negative, I don't mean to. The game is, as I said, addictive in spite of its limitations and its art design and animation are unparalleled. If you are a fan of feudal Japan, you absolutely have to buy S:TW. If you are a fan of computer wargames, you really should add this fairly innovative title to your collection. Otherwise, you may want to try to get your hands on a demo first and see if it's your cup of (green) tea.

Modern Descendent of Koei

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: July 31, 2001
Author: Amazon User

It was 6AM and the sun was already up, but my attention was focused on the battle being raged on the PC before me. I had played through the night to reach this moment: the first major confrontation between the two remaining clans to decide who would rule Japan. The enemy's warrior monks started to create havoc on my left front. Hurriedly, I sent two units of Yari Samarai to bolster the line, but I sent them in unsupported. A huge mistake. Alone the two units were in trouble and soon were wavering. I tried to order the rest of my army to counterattack, but the damage had been done. My left cracked and soon panic seized the entire army. I rushed my Daimyo into the breach in a desperate bid to head off disaster. A short while later my Daimyo was dead and I watched my ruined army being chased from the field by the forces of the victorious Hojo clan. I sat back and said to myself, "Wow! What a game!"

"Shogun: Total War" really caught me by surprise. I had heard lots of raves about its 3-D graphics, but I had also heard the words "shallow" and "lack of depth" attached to its gameplay. I was especially turned off by the comparisons of the game's strategic element to Risk. However, I discovered that the raves about the 3-D battles were all true and that the strategic element was much more comparable to the wonderful Koei console games of the late 80's and early 90's than to Risk. I loved those Koei games (Genghis Khan, Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, ect.;) and to finally get a game that merges the strategic complexities and the Far Eastern historical setting of those games with a realtime 3-D tactical battle is fantastic.

STW is not perfect. The manual is truly awful. If you have an Nvidia graphics card you're probably going to have to update your drivers in order to get the game to work. The diplomatic element is weak, and trade is very abstractly handled. The information menu, which keeps track of your provinces, generals, heirs, ect., is just a list instead of a way to locate things by clicking on the name. As a result trying to find something such as a particular general is more time consuming than it should be. Also although the game does the give the player the option to let the PC instantly resolve battles, it's just a surefire way to lose battles and ensure your clan's downfall. So the player has to fight virtually every battle which can get repetitive.

I'm still giving STW 5 stars because not many games have kept me up til 6AM and still had me forcing myself not to click the "end turn" button. The 3-D battles are truly spectacular with the weather effects and the portrayal of morale which is not often found in RTS. Unlike the warriors in games such as the AOE series or Cossacks, who fight to the death no matter what the odds, the soldiers of STW will run if they think the battle is not going well. It is simply awesome to watch what seemed like an overwhelming army melt into a mob of panicked fugitives with your tired units in pursuit cutting down those not fast enough to escape. This one very fine game!

Windows ME

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 31, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Just wanted to point out that even though the description for this game says it works with Win95, 98 and ME, it does not work with ME. At all. It doesnt crash lots or run slow under Millenium, it just does not work at all.

Massive warfare on realistic terrain = loads of fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: February 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is an ideal mix of turn-based and real-time strategy. All of the boring stuff, farming, economics, and the like, are handled macroscopically on a realistically rendered, RISK-like game board. Combat takes place in real-time with hundreds (hundreds!) of troops, including archers, yari samurai, cavalry, and ninja. It's like playing the medieval Japanese version of the combat sequences in Braveheart.

Combat is, thankfully, not painfully microscopic. Troops are organized into units of up to 60 warriors, and formations are easy to set up and move. Fatigue and morale are also nicely handled. If your troops are overwhelmed, you lose control over them, and they (realistically) flee the battlefield!

The dialogue is minimal, but satisfying. My favorite: "the enemy daisho is running from the battlefield like a whipped dog!"

I see that there is a medieval Europe version of the game in the works, complete with catapults, castles, and siege machines. Somebody please help Total War's developers obtain a license to make Total War: Middle Earth. I'm ready to play the battle of the five armies...

Amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Shogun is an amazingly addictive and fun game to play. Although there isn't a whole lot of backstory in the manual, on the CD are pages of Japanese background in HTML format. The unusual controls may seem weird at first, but in no time you'll be used to the turn based strategic map. Think Star Wars Rebellion except about 50 times better. You can send people on missions, send troops into provinces to take over, send out spies, ninja, and emmisaries, and whenever anything cool happens, there is an extremely high quality cool video waiting there to illustrate it for you. You can make and break treaties, fight wars with enemies on three different fronts while dealing with uprisings on recently conquered land and dealing with dutch traders at the same time.

While on easy mode this game is easy, on harder modes it gets darn near impossible. But it's also appreciable, because it's fair. You watch the computers tactics, and realize that while it's a tough system with good AI, it doesn't cheat, and it is possible to beat. And believe me, this is one of those games where you really get a feeling of satisfaction once you've beaten it.

But it's on the battlefield that this game really shines. You have thousands of troops. All of them are influenced by their skill and that of the general, by weather conditions, fatigue, morale, whether they're defending or attacking. Choke points like bridges literally make it possible to hold off 300 enemies with 30 archers and 50 samurai. But when the archers run out of arrows, you're screwed. The graphics are great, and you can try all kinds of tactics like flanking the enemy, or rushing down a hill at them, or all those cool things you've wanted to try since seeing Gettysburg or Braveheart. And it works.

This game is addictive, fun, informative, and slick. I definitely very highly recommend this game to everyone.

Most Realistic Battle Sequences To Date; Scant Negotiations

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: August 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Yes, the novel Shogun by James Clavell is one of the most interesting books ever written; yes, Seven Samauri etc. are effectively realized; and yes, much of that is translated into this game. But not all of it.

Good Points:

--Battle Sequences that are second to none with realism that has never been accomplished before in a computer game involving terrain and troop movements. Those little guys really put their all into slaughtering one another.

--Excellent graphics, sound, and overall effect. "Hai, Anjin-san."

--Powerful artificial intelligence that learns. Yes, learns. (Vis-a-vis: you use a brilliant tactic to get across a bridge and attack a defending army. Two turns later, the game uses that same tactic against you.)

--Careful attention to historical detail, down to individual units on battlefields and troop formations/reactions.

Bad Points:

--Very little diplomacy, meaning that you can ally with enemy commanders and it ends there. And alliances mean next to nothing, as you may very well be attacked by an ally at any time.

--Also, the European presence, while intriguing and terribly promising, means very little apart from providing new possibilities for building improvements and units; there is no involvement to speak of, of Europeans in Japanese affairs. Historically there was quite a bit--the Europeans should meddle more.

--Online gaming is very limited. Don't expect to wage a campaign against someone online: the best you can do is play another person in a battle. You can't manage the real strategic aspects of the larger game online, as you should be able to. But, the AI almost makes up for this.

--The rule book is incorrect and about as thick as a pamphlet on ear disease at a doctor's office.

That said, Shogun: Total War is one of the best games to come along in quite some time and anyone with any brains should buy it and read James Clavell's Shogun. The miniseries is also quite good, but costs close to $ 250 on Amazon.com; rent it if you can. You will need a fast computer to run this game, be warned.

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